What Happened To Free Speech?

[cgrim29588 0]

Remember when people could speak their minds freely without fear of small minded and biased individuals stomping on their creativity. Back then the internet was truly an open forum where idea's could be exchanged and brainstorming sessions brewed up exciting epithanies.

 

No longer.

 

If you want to talk down strange cultures like those shared by the ancient arabic nations then you have free reign but criticism of the United States in even the mildest form is a no no. That gets you called an anti-american for Uncle Sam can do no wrong. If you haven't got a McDonalds on every corner then you must be an anti-democratic state with ambitions to take over the World.

 

Feeling crical of the way Israel bombs UN depots and children or starves entire villages with its indiscriminate bombing of neighbouring nations. Well, obviously you are anti-semitic so it doesn't matter what you think.

 

Well, if that's the case then I think most of the world is quickly becoming anti-american and anti-semitic. The Middle East which makes up a third of the worlds population can certainly be labelled such. Asia can add the majority of North Korea and China which brings it to well over half of the planet. As for the rest of us? We are watching the carnage on television and reading about it in newspapers.

 

I will always be a strong supporter of free speech and I will say what I think about history. Not as America or Israel would like it told. I'll expound about what really happened.

 

I said in another thread that America has no balls compared to Russia when it comes to nuclear development. I stand by that claim. History backs me up. America didn't suffer through Chernobyl but it was they who crumbled to noisy minority ecowacky pressure. The Russians ploughed on regardless and are now world leaders in nuclear engineering.

 

What are your opinions on free speech?

[Dragonfly 0]

Well there is free speech but this too should have limits and descency into it, otherwise in the name of free speech one can harm others deeply beyond repair. I do not wish to respond to the points you've raised one by one but both sides have a good reason to argue about. But excess of everything can be really bad. I fully support free speech and I'm for it wholeheartedly but a responsible person knows what is the limit of a free speech.

[Ao)K-General 0]

I fully agree with you, cgrim29588. What ever happened to that. Yes there should be a limit to free speech like the example my dad gives me. His example is that yelling fire in a place like a movie theater or a public place with lots of people, yes it is free speech, but it can cause people to get hurt. People would panic and try to get outside in fear of being hurt or killed. That's where free speech can be bad. But just because you criticise the US does not mean you should be considered Anti-American. The US has done bad things just like every other country. No person is perfect. But just because you are against some things your country doesn't mean you are against the country as a whole. It's just crazy. I believe some of the things Bush have been stupid and should have been better thought out. But it's just crazy.

[Joshua 0]

I'm also going to say "freedoms" should have limits. I think Americans are getting so overly concerned with their "freedoms" that they overlook the rights of others. When our "freedoms" begin harming others, then they're a problem. Over in NorthEastern USA they now have a city that's legalized nudity. Ultimately you start getting down to whether a person has a right to nudity if it goes against another's basic human principles for modesty. In a related scenario, video-game makers are saying they should be able to sell violent video games to little kids, games rated "R", citing "freedom of speech". Are we really this far gone that we can't see anything wrong with subjecting little kids to violence and nudity that studies clearly show has adverse effects on them? We're so worried about our rights and freedoms we've stopped caring about others in our quest to get whatever we feel is best for us. We shouldn't be worried first about freedoms, but about what is best for other people. Greed and harming others come because we care more about ourselves then other people.

[mik 0]

If you were talking about free speech on US TV, I would agree with you. The Republican party agenda is almost exlusively represented and there are no dissenting voices to be heard. But that is the result of self censorship by the TV companies and what they perceive to be best for their bottom line profits.

 

However I don't think free speech on the internet is in any danger -- yet.

 

If you are interested at all in US politics and read the left wing blogs and news sites on the internet, you would know that there is vigorous criticsm of everything Pres. Bush and the neo-cons are doing, on a daily basis. And that's because liberal minded folk strongly object to the conduct of the Bush administration and are not afraid to say as much.

 

I think Pres. Bush would like America to be more of a police state, many of his efforts seem directed towards that end. I am sure that if the Rebublican party thought that they could get away with it they would have started a program to harass left wing internet sites by now. But the idea of free speech is pretty strongly ingrained in the American psyche, so the Repubs might be playing with fire were they to do such a thing.

 

The danger comes if the big media corporations are allowed more control over the internet, then I guess the internet might follow the same path as the less than useless TV companies and free speach might be harder to express.

[velma 6]

Interesting Topic.....

 

I know what you mean.. I have been pushed out of the gang many times for I was too blunt and was told off for telling the truth...

 

Like they say The truth is bitter....I learnt it the hard way..Back to the topic,I think it has something to do with ego and the mentality of the person for like a typical narrow minded or really complex filled person they would not appreciate it if someone other than them found something really great

 

I mean think about it If you were jealous then you would suppress it and try to find faults of all kinds in it...Or Sometimes they are not broad minded enough to understand it... Imagine if you were tolerant then nothing would hurt you.It is only when you take things personally and seriously all the time that people start speaking of Moral policing

 

I work with a friend of mine and we have arguments regarding work if it is not done or something of that sorts and If I kept taking things seriously then our relationship would get destroyed right? It is the same with free speech,,,People have to be tolerant and broad minded to take things in the positive all the time

 

But sadly I feel that rather than moving ahead people are moving mentally backwards as technology is moving forward.....

 

I did not mean to hurt anybody

 

Cheers

Edited April 10, 2007 by velma (see edit history)

[FolkRockFan 0]

Freedom of speech, here in the U.S. at least, guarantees that our GOVERNMENT won't censor us. This right has nothing to do with individuals. If a bunch of people on the Internet flame a guy for having a contrary opinion...well, that guy can either continue standing up for what he believes or go to a different forum (one where his views are more common). That has nothing to do with freedom of speech. In fact: the forum owner can censor at will. There's nothing wrong with that because it's a privately-owned (not a government-run) forum.Yes, it's frustrating when you're in the minority opinion-wise. It's very difficult to be in that group because it's small and overpowered by the voices of the many. But we Americans have the right to openly express ourselves. With that comes the problems and issues. Even in America's earliest days, the founding fathers had this problem. That's why the Federalist Papers were written (they had differing opinions, so they wrote what they thought and circulated the papers).

Edited April 10, 2007 by FolkRockFan (see edit history)